The Heroes of Westfall

Pilindor Corunir

Description:

Pilindor is an athletic, not cut, elf that stands 5’10” and weighs 165 pounds. Long golden hair frames his stout face with brilliant blue eyes and firm chin. His glance is keen and his smile warming. He wears hide armor composed of a forest green sleeveless shirt and close fitting brown pants. He wears dark green bracers on which he carries his friend, Branndor. A black ornamental scabbard houses a longsword that is thrown across his back. He carries a teak greatbow ornately carved in the shapes of vines, leaves and flowers.

Branndor, a male bald eagle, accompanies Pilindor wherever he walks. Normally flying above and in front of Pilindor, he helps the elf hunter find prey and track it while remaining out of sight. When not flying, Branndor alights on Pilindor’s bracers on his wrists. Pilindor wears thick leather hides across his shoulders to allow Branndor to alight there when it pleases him. At night, Branndor picks a nearby tree to spend the evening.

Bio:

Ves has always had an eye towards the extravagant. He has been enamored with hunting ever since he was a child and, as an adult, has continued taking to the forest every so often to continue the hobby. Over time, however, he bored of the same quarry and the ease with which he could kill them (albeit aided with magic).

Hoping to excite himself with the hunt more, as well as entertain some of his wealthy friends, he began working with an evil druid to provide more challenging game. Through dark magic they began combining the parts of the world’s most ferocious animals to create super creatures that roamed the fringes of the forest. Lions combined with bears, wolves with elephants and other obscene combinations. He felled many living trees on the edge of the forest near a small creek and built a small resort for him and his companions.

Pilindor first caught wind of this operation while dealing with some local fur trappers. They told Pilindor of Ves Heathrow and his “resort” and the rumors of strange animals that seemed to roam nearby. The rumors of dangerous monsters continued while escorting a herd of deer they were attacked by an eagle-wolf. Pilindor decided to get to the bottom of these events.
~ Originally, Ves and the druid had been able to control the animals and the operation was a success. Eventually, as the animals spent more and more time in the wild, their control broke down and it became more difficult to run the operation. Eventually Ves lost interest and abandoned the resort and left it to decay.

Pilindor tracked the path of the freakish animal. The tracks eventually led him to a clearing where previously he had remembered a stand of rosewood trees. Pushing aside the undergrowth, Pilindor was disgusted at the waste that lay before him. Acres upon acres of felled trees lay before him. Some had been trimmed and milled while others had been felled and left to rot. In the distance he saw a great hall with pens surrounding it.

Making his way across the forsaken expanse he came across a polluted stream. It stank of raw sewage and dead fish floated across feces infested water. Pushing forward he came to the pens at the outermost portions of the property. Dead dogs and wolves laid chained to posts and fences. Inside he found other dead abominations that had been abandoned and starved. Pilindor’s hatred burned for the man he had not yet met but knew must face justice for the atrocities that he had carried out here.

Searching through the abandoned building, Pilindor heard a faint chirping sound. Following the sound he pushed back overturned tables and boxes to find a small cage housing a young eagle chick. Malnourished and frightened by days and weeks of abuse, Pilindor took the chick and nursed it back to health. Unable to release it into the wild, Pilindor took the eagle as his pet and named it Branndor. They’ve been inseparable since.

After the defeat of the devourer, and the subsequent Guardian Brotherhood game, Pilindor tried to take advantage of the increased notoriety and goodwill.

Having travelled far and wide, he was upset at what the forest had become in the post-war era. Bandits and thieves were using it as a hiding place, wicked druids were concocting all sorts of un-natural beasts, and even the rivers had been polluted with the filth and slime of the many people that used them for commercial purposes. So he began recruiting adventurers who seemed willing to help restore the forest back to its natural balance.

Pilindor quickly discovered, however, that not everyone shared his innate love of the forest and desire to see it restored to its natural state. The vast majority of adventurers who joined his cause grew wary of the lack of coin that was involved in saving the forest. Although his adventuring party initially experienced widespread popularity, the adventurers eventually left in search of better ways to make a bit of gold.

A shrewd businessman and hunter named Yugee eventually approached Pilindor with a way to make the work profitable. The demand for forest goods was still very high in Westfall and many people risked their lives trying to extract some of its natural resources. Yugee proposed that Pilindor sell various forest-building assignments to those that were interested. Thus began the Elven Forest Trading Company. In controlling the contracts and the assignments, Pilindor could manage the work that was done and make sure it was contributing to the overall benefit of the forest. The hunters and other merchants benefitted because they were given exclusive rights to a particular crop or animal in a given area. They were also shown by Pilindor what to do and how to do it. The forest benefitted because many tasks that had gone un-noticed were now being completed in a timely and efficient way.

Eventually people began extending the reaches of their assigned territories or taking fruits or animals they were not given permission to harvest. Animal stocks began to dwindle and feuds and challenges began between the various parties. All of these problems were laid at Pilindor’s feet to figure out. Not one for politics, and heavily affected by the toll his work had taken on the forest, Pilindor sold his share, at a discounted rate, of the EFTC to Yugee and decided to return to the forest permanently. He felt the forest would be better served by his presence without the influence of money and greed.

He returned home to his village and spent several months with his family and friends. He helped his brother, who had recently married, build a home in the trees and took to remodeling his mother’s home. He hunted with friends he hadn’t seen in years and, for the most part, enjoyed life. He became bothered, however, by the elves’ apparent lack of interest in the happenings elsewhere in the world or even other parts of the forest. In their constant drive to be one with nature, he felt they were casting a blind eye to the other afflictions that plagued other parts of the world. Through his travels and adventures, Pilindor had developed a sense that nature wasn’t just the forest and trees, but all of the creatures and living beings around the world. There were problems to be found everywhere.

After about a year, Pilindor left his village and built a home for himself (he had previously lived with his mom) in the trees along the bank of the southern river that flowed north to meet the Logrun. Still a part of the forest, Pilindor found satisfaction from knowing what was going on in the rest of the world. He built a small dock and campground for weary boaters going up and down the river in trade. He would sell different goods from the forest and in exchange would get welcome news from further south towards Lost Fort or even as far west as Westfall. He eventually developed friendships with some of the boaters and enjoyed the companionship.

Another year past and Pilindor once again found himself ready to move. Although he enjoyed the news and friendship of the boaters, he had grown tired of the daily grind of the forest. He and Brandor had developed into an amazing pair of hunters. Very few foes the forest could muster frightened the pair, and those they could not drop they could evade easily. He recalled with fondness the adventures he had once had with the Guardian Brotherhood and began wondering what the group was up to. The final straw was when a group of traders transporting mushrooms made mention of their favorite customer, none other than Sid himself. Pilindor was delighted to hear that Sid was alive and well.

That evening Pilindor began deconstructing his home in the trees and returning it to its original form. He decided to leave the dock and campground as it had become part of the natural landscape and boaters depended on it for a rest along the way. He returned to his home and sold the remaining possessions that were not needed for an adventurer. With a hug for his brother and a kiss for his mom, Pilindor began the long journey back towards Westfall. He bought passage from a boater friend named Furche and floated the entire trip to Westfall.

The creature that ran through the streets of Lost Fort was, to put it kindly, bizarre. It walked like a bird on its back legs, had no front legs, and its snout was long and tapered and dripped acid everywhere it went. It left a long, thin trail of acrid smelling, dissolved matter behind it like any natural creature might leave footprints. A digester, they called it.

The watch of Lost Fort had been chasing the digester for several days now. Everytime they thought they had it cornered, it seemed to find a way away from them. Once, it actually burned a hole straight through the side of the blacksmith’s shop, leaving the poor dwarf hundreds of gold pieces poorer. It was a menace to the town.

No one knew exactly why it had shown up, but everyone knew it had to go. But they had little skill in hunting aberrants. Luckily, they knew someone – or rather, there was someone that knew them – that had quite a bit of skill.

The pair came into town late the night before, and had stayed up until dawn tracking and studying its movements. It was erratic, they determined. There seemed to be no underlying pattern to it.

“We’ll just have to hope we’re lucky and it runs into us.” The elf shrugged awkwardly due to the eagle perched on his shoulder.

“I have a feeling this one will be easy,” the elf’s companion replied, rotating its eyestalks as it surveyed the market they currently stood in. “It seems to have a propensity for destruction. If we keep our ears and eyes open, we should be able to find it with minimal effort once the rest of the town is awake.”

The elf nodded in agreement.

Early the next morning, as they had predicted, once the market was full it took no time before a woman started screaming. The elf sprinted through the busy square, knocking an arrow as he ran. He lept over a fruit stand and spotted his quarry in midair, loosing the arrow and drawing back another one as he landed softly on his toes. The creature squealed in pain from the arrow the elf had let loose, which had lodged itself in the top of its leg, and a crackling sheet of ice started working its way over the digester’s body. A few seconds later, and it was frozen completely, unable to move.